Bookpleasures.com welcomes as our guest Nicole Kelly, M. D. Nicole is the author of 69 Shades of Nashville: Sociopathic Sex Southern Style. Nicole is an established Nashville physician who had first-hand experience dealing with the manipulations of a sociopath.

Norm: Good day Nicole and thanks for participating in our interview. How did you become involved with the subject or theme of your book and how did you decide you were ready to write the book?

Nicole: If you had told me three years ago that I would write a novel about a married sociopathic sex addict on a cheaters’ website, I would have thought you were delusional.

Writing a book has always been a goal of mine, and over the last two decades I started—but never finished--several non-fiction medical projects. Everyday life kept getting in the way of book completion.

It took the betrayal of someone whom I considered a trusted friend—along with the theft of hundreds of thousands of dollars—to kick start my writing process.

Originally, I wrote as a form of therapy to understand how I could have been so gullible as to allow this to happen. As I began to piece together all of her stories and lies, I suddenly realized my ex-friend is a sociopathic sex addict.

I had studied Anti-Social Personality Disorder (more commonly called “sociopathy” or “psychopathy”) in medical school, but my understanding was only of the violent psychopath who murders, commits arson, hurts animals, and ends up in jail.

I was ignorant of the intelligent sociopath who wears a mask to deceive her lack of empathy. Most sociopaths are not imprisoned but are among us—hiding in plain sight.

What started as therapy turned into a mission to educate the public about a type of person who sees us as pawns to manipulate for personal gain. Sociopaths run our country, companies, and churches but most of us are completely unaware they exist.

When giving lectures, I often find that too many facts and not enough story puts people to sleep. Although modified into a fictional format with all identifying information changed, my ex-friend supplied enough stories of her many sexual conquests to paint the picture of the sociopathic psyche in a very entertaining format.

By channeling her voice, the reader is able to enter the mind of a sociopath. This is truly how she thinks. As many people are visual learners, I added over 300 drawings (more R-rated than X) that reveal the hidden reality obscured by the first-person, sociopathic narrative. 69Shades of Nashville: Sociopathic Sex Southern Style educates in an entertaining format.

Norm: How did you come up with the title 69 Shades of Nashville: Sociopathic Sex Southern Style?

Nicole: The sociopathic NashvilleKitty is writing this book to make money to escape the horrid place where she is trapped. She believes that by telling her story, she will make millions and be freed. When picking the title, I imagined, “What would a conniving sociopath name her book?” It should be manipulative yet trendy; suggest sex while representing Nashville, and, of course, praise the sociopathic mindset as only Nashville Kitty would. She is a sociopath and proud of it. She will use anything or anyone to get what she wants.

Norm: What were your goals and intentions in this book, and how well do you feel you achieve them?

Nicole: My goal was to educate the public about the sociopath in an entertaining format. I wanted to capture her voice and expose it to the world so others may recognize this different breed of human in order to protect themselves. My main objective was to teach without the reader feeling taught. It is a fun read with humorous drawings and a surprise ending. I wanted to create something completely outside-the-box that defies genre and has never been done before and ended up with an erotic psychological thriller in a fictional memoir format complete with over 300 drawings. Not to sound like a narcissistic sociopath, but I think it turned out great!

Norm: Has your environment and or upbringing influenced your writing?

Nicole: Although some encouraged me to change the location of the novel for increased anonymity, I felt strongly the story must take place in Nashville. It is a great city and acts as an underlying character to the plot. Nashville is booming while many American cities struggle to survive. Also, I sought the contrast of using the conservative, religious South as the backdrop to this story of manipulation and sin.

Norm: What was the most difficult part of writing this book and what did you enjoy most about writing this book?

Nicole: The most difficult part of writing this book was forcing myself to stay in the mind of a sociopath for the two year creative process. Although NashvilleKitty can be quite entertaining and charming, she is a manipulative anti-hero with no empathy whose real-life counterpart stole vast amounts of money from me, almost destroyed my business, and betrayed my trust. Writing in her voice made me value my conscience and empathy even more.

I really enjoyed creating something very different from anything I have ever seen before. Creating the ideas for the drawings was especially fun as it was my opportunity to give a contrary view to the sociopathic narrative. The ending was also quite satisfying.

Norm: What was your main focus when you created NashvilleKitty and how did you go about creating her?

Nicole: NashvilleKitty is based on a real sociopathic sex addict. I changed the names to usernames, modified the details, and fictionalized the narrative so that her own mother would not recognize her, but NashvilleKitty is real.

Norm: Did you learn anything from writing your book and what was it?

Nicole: Writing a book is a lot harder than it appears. This project has consumed me and seems to be never-ending. I am very happy with the final project, but I suspect if I had known how grueling my therapy writing experiment would be, I may not have started. Still, I am glad I did it. What began as a nightmare resulted in a creative work of which I am extremely proud.

Norm: Do you hear from your readers much? What kinds of things do they say? How has the feedback been so far?

Nicole: So far, the feedback has been fantastic. People are very enthusiastic about how well-written and entertaining the book is. Readers have been losing sleep because they could not put it down. The only negative feedback was an objection to my using the description “A Graphically Enhanced Novel,” as it is not a graphic novel in the traditional sense. In order to avoid offending, I have changed the description to “Over 300 Scintillating Drawings.”

Norm: Are you working on any books/projects that you would like to share with us (We would love to hear all about them!)?

Nicole: NashvilleKitty is the unreliable narrator of 69 Shade of Nashville: Sociopathic Sex Southern Style, and she describes sociopathy through her own warped lens leading to misinformation. In an effort to educate in the traditional sense, I am working on a non-fiction work called Sexopathy: The Sociopathic Sex Addict. Using NashvilleKitty examples (spoiler alert), as well as many of the countless current cases of sociopathic sex addicts being exposed on a daily basis, I intend to offer the public a resource to detect those without conscious and to offer ways to protect themselves.

Norm: How can readers find out more about you and your endeavors?

Nicole:  MY WEBSITE            

Norm: As this interview comes to an end, what question do you wish that someone would ask about your book, but nobody has?

Nicole: Is there a foolproof way to identify a sociopath like NashvilleKitty?

Sociopaths look like everyone else. Lying comes as easily as breathing to them, and they can even beat a polygraph machine as they do not have an increase in heart rate or perspiration while they deceive. There is one test on which they cannot cheat – the Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scan reveals sociopaths minds work differently with a noticeable pattern of low brain function in the frontal and temporal lobes (areas commonly associated with self-control and empathy). We require healthcare workers to take drug screens before taking care of patients. How different would our country be if our politicians had PET scans before we elected them?

Norm: Thanks once again and good luck with all of your future endeavors

Follow Here To Read Norm's Review of 69 Shades of Nathville: Sociopathic Sex Southern Style